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Google gets a new CEO, Google Inc. & gets a new name “Alphabet”

August 11, 2015

In one of the biggest developments in technology, Google dropped some major bombshells yesterday. The first was the news that the conglomerate is reorganizing its holding company so that its web operations have more independence. The second bombshell was the fact that Google now has a new CEO, Sundar Pichai – the 40-something IIT-Stanford-Wharton graduate who joined Google in 2004, and was handpicked by Larry Page to succeed him.
Under the restructured operations, the company would offer investors better visibility into their plans as they expand into new businesses, including health and internet access. Alphabet Inc. is what the company would now be called. Under which YouTube, Android Mobile software and other web-based products would operate. According to the company’s Monday blog, Alphabet would also include Calico, Google Ventures, Google Capital, Google X and other subsidiaries. According to Alphabet Inc.’s CEO, Larry Page, the company would not be a consumer brand.
The rest of the corporate hierarchy would remain more or less unchanged. Larry Page, who was Google Inc.’s (now Alphabet Inc.) co-founder and CEO, will retain that title at Alphabet Inc. The company’s other co-founder, Sergey Brin, will be president. Ruth Porat, would be the CFO of Alphabet Inc., while Page’s second in command, Pichai has been promoted to become the CEO of Google Inc., the product that generates a major portion of the company’s $60 billion in annual revenue. In other changes, Omid Kordestani, who was previously the chief business officer at Google Inc., has now become adviser to Alphabet and Google.
According to the search engine giant, the new structure would be introduced, in phases, in the coming months. The fruits of the changes would be visible after the fourth-quarter reports, expected in January, are made public.
So the question is, what does Alphabet Inc. intend to accomplish with these massive changes? Well, once the change go into effect, it would mean that investors would be authorized to get more details on the business operations, an issue which has long been a thorn on Wall Street’s side. Investors had started to get a bit apprehensive about spend on blanket projects that included multiple products, without giving them a better insight into exactly how long it would take for their efforts to pay off.
Many might be wondering, why “Alphabet”? True, it is a rather unconventional choice for a company that rules the web, but it is a lot more recognizable than the word “google”… at least it wasn’t until Google happened. That said, it is rather poetic; expressing one’s thoughts is inconceivable without using alphabets, much like how our internet activity is without Google’s services. According to Page, “We liked the name “Alphabet” because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity’s most important innovations, and is the core of how we index with Google search!” That said, a more Google-appropriate explanation could be found in what Page later added, “We also like that it means alpha-bet (Alpha is investment return above benchmark), which we strive for!”.

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